


Water

by lesbianettes



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: F/F, Femslash, Ficlet, First Kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-07
Updated: 2019-08-07
Packaged: 2020-08-11 14:22:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20155030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesbianettes/pseuds/lesbianettes
Summary: Uma feels something she's never felt before





	Water

After everything, Uma and Mal find themselves sitting at the edge of the enchanted lake. If Uma thought the ocean was beautiful by the Isle, this is something else entirely. Although devoid of sea life, the water is so clear and the plethora of bright green plants are all kinds of beauty she never could have dreamed of before. If she hadn’t helped, she would’ve never seen this. Nor would she have Mal beside her, their shoulders bumping and their bare legs dangling in the refreshing water.

They’ve been rivals for a long time, but Uma’s never hated her. She can’t call what she feels hate. Instead, it’s a sort of burn that starts at the pit of her stomach and curls around her ribs with a tighter, more punishing grip than even her own tentacles can manage. No matter how many hours she’s dedicated to trying to understand, it just isn’t something she has the words for. It isn’t hate the way she always assumed. She knows what hate feels like. She knows what it feels like to hate Audrey, hate Evie, hate all of Auradon. But whatever this is, it isn’t hate. It’s warmer, sharper. And every time Mal brushes against her, it pounds harder against the inside of her chest, desperate to be let out.

“I’m really glad we’re friends,” Mal says.

Her voice is softer now that it’s just the two of them. Not performative or commanding. She’s more like the little girl Uma first met ten, eleven, twelve years ago. Kind, if a little broken, and merely wanting something better than a mother who barely loves her and a lifetime of reminders she will never be good enough. Uma doesn’t get that. Her own mother loves her, spoils her, dotes on her. But she does understand the pain of inadequacy. If she knew how, she’d do something to fix it. Instead, she rests her head against Mal’s shoulder although it makes her heart pound.

“Me too.”

Uma chances looking up at Mal’s face. Open, free. Her lips are lightly pressed together and her eyes distant, a soft flush cupping her cheeks. She looks like the queen she’ll become all too soon, even without a crown or tiara nestled in her soft hair. For the first time in her life, Uma wants to touch someone’s hair. A little more blue than violet nowadays. Silky smooth. She has the urge to run her fingers through it slow and careful, and then comes a thought that explains the pain in her chest.

She’d like to kiss Mal.

As that thought rears its head, Uma begins slipping into the cold water. She feels more in control when she’s herself, tentacles and all, and control is what she needs in order to dismiss whatever it is she’s feeling right now. Plus, maybe it’ll make Mal leave, and then everything will fall apart without any effort. 

The seconds that pass as her tentacles unfurl are slow, because Mal doesn’t go anywhere. Instead, she sits in place and watches, her head tilted to the side ever so slightly and her lips quirking up at the corners in a slight smile that has no right to look so beautiful. If she didn’t know the lake washed off all spells, Uma would be wondering if Mal had enchanted her. But no, the feeling remains, so strong, fluttering desperately, craving more attention than Uma has ever received or even wanted to receive.

“Does it feel different than the ocean?” Mal asks. “I know it does for me, when I’ve tried swimming there.”

Uma almost misses the question, but nods her head once she manages to process the words. “Yeah. It’s um, it’s easier to breathe here.”

“Maybe because the water’s cleaner?”

She shrugs and allows her tentacles to stretch, relax, take over the water and watch its levels rise with displacement so that it laps inches below where Mal’s sitting as opposed to merely tickling halfway up her calves. It’s harder to gauge her size in the ocean when everything is large and people are often far away, but here, it’s painfully obvious that her true form is too much in the little lake. But it’s comfortable, and she actually likes the way Mal is looking at her. A fair amount curious, plenty interested, but with a softness as well. A sweetness. Something like the way Evie looks at Mal and Harry looks at Uma and Carlos looks at Jay.

“Swim with me?” she blurts out. It’s stupid.

Mal nods and pulls off her coat, then her shirt, and then her jeans. She’s not naked, but much closer to it than she was before, and Uma makes an effort not to look because she refuses to be someone like that, someone who doesn’t understand boundaries. But in the water, together, it feels like there are a million boundaries being crossed as one of Uma’s tentacles brushes against Mal’s legs as she swims up so they’re looking each other in the eyes. It’s tense, but not the way it has been in the past. It’s different the way the warmth in Uma’s chest is different, and the next thing she knows, soft lips meet hers.

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr @shoelace-noose


End file.
